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With respect to Sanogo

I’ve been away, loafing in Ionian sunshine, studying things from afar, so much as ‘things’ can reasonably be called ‘things’.

So for real action, the Fenerbahce game was my season opener, and it was as good a spectacle as any game in which you’ve got a three goal lead can be. Ramsey – excellent, Cazorla – peerless. We sprung well from the back, the crowd was munificent in its support (bar the thousands of empty seats, but it was maybe a hard sell given the outcome was as good as decided), and here we are once again dining at the top table with the champs, so it’s all good. Since the Villa mess, we’ve looked positive and dangerous.

Well, it’s not all good. I lie. Poldi thundered off up the left wing and pulled up clutching his hamstring. We were told he’d be out for a Diaby – three weeks going on ten – and so it proved. He now joins Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Vermaelen and Mr Three Weeks himself cluttering up Colin Lewin’s office.

It makes the next few days both ‘crucial’ and ‘interesting’, which may be be better than the ‘baffling’ and ‘maddening’ that have preceded them, or may not, depending on what happens. I don’t know anyone who can make any sense of this summer’s transfer vacuum, so I won’t pretend to try to make sense of what might happen between now and Monday night either. Whatever happens it will be hard to consider it as anything other than a trolley dash. But we shall see, eh.

And with respect to Sanogo, it was good to see him come off the sub’s bench. Tall lad, a bit nervous and it looked it. Having the likes of him, Ryo and Gnabry as benchers is as risky as it gets, frankly. As is having Sagna as centre-back and having Gibbs/Monreal as forward options.

Nigel Flamini on a free? I loved his application when he was with us before. Just the energy we need, if he’s still anything like as good as he was (and there are some who worry his injuries have diminished him). And huge experience. And free – which is obviously good for a club operating on a £70m shoestring.

18 thoughts on “With respect to Sanogo”

I want to avoid reading all this stuff, I want to support the team, but all I see are the same mistakes being repeated over and over again. We’ll sign place holders, and guff like Chamakh, Santos and Park, and the same lies will tumble out of the club how they tried their best. To quote the Rock, losers whine about their best, winners go and f*ck the prom queen. If we were serious about being contenders we’d have done something by now. Whoever we sign, I tell you now they’ll be nothing but a crushing disappointment. At least we can hang Wenger and the board by their own hubris when this summer of discontent closes!
I feel sorry for us as fans, but I also feel sorry for the players like Jack, Santi et al who were fed lies by Wenger and co about competing and spending.

I agree with what you say here – I can feel the dread and disappointment as the day looms when the window shuts. Like you say, it’s bound to be a crushing disappointment. Wenger will lie, lie and deceive and give some sob story about how difficult it is to sign players.

The most galling thing is that even piss weak teams and teams without European football can get some very handy deals over the line: Paulinho, Wanyama, Villa (are Atletico in Europe?), Soldado etc…

This shows the is something VERY wrong at Arsenal – very wrong indeed. HOW THE HELL can Wenger be allowed this much control to effectively asset strip the playing squad and make us look like depleted sitting ducks?! Or if it isn’t Wenger (an argument for balance’s sake as we know everything runs through him) just what is going on?

They need to go – they’ve done as much work as Joe Kinnear and have similar spoils to show for it – Kinnear rightly gets ridiculed but Wenger gets off Scott-free.

And Fellaini
and Julio Cesar
and Higuain
What about Cavani and Falcao? He made such an epic failure in the Suarez overture that he may aswell have just paid the Buy It Now price on one of those 2 – no questions asked, in the bag and a real statement of intent – then the others would have followed.

It’s his insulting offers for players that annoy football clubs – and insisting on doing things right up to the deadline not allowing other clubs to replace players. You only get dross at the last minute as no player that is wanted will be allowed to leave without a replacement.

Wenger is a laughing stock and I think that clubs are tired of doing business with this capricious miser and are rightly telling him and the aptly-named Dick Law to fuck off.

Bring in David O’Leary – at least he’d spend! (ok…that’s tongue-in-cheek, but anyone but Wenger!)

Yeah I do feel bad for judging him but it’s down to Wenger.
He “believes” in his players so much. All I could think about was, “We once had a young Anelka, a young Henry” – although admittedly Henry was a WC winner when he came – but this Sanogo is not in Anelka’s league and never will be.

Sanogo and Ryo both looked like fawns who had just dropped from the womb – but that was just one appearance, and they were obviously overwhelmed. Maybe given more minutes, they’ll gain a sense balance and coordination.

About that, I’m not sure. If you saw his hold up play, and goals, during the Under 20 World Cup, you might not write him off relative to Anelka. I think he is going to be better than Anelka. Not Henry, but Anelka.

At the Under 20 World Cup, he was definitely one of the better players, and he started as striker in a 4-2-3-1 for the team that won the tournament (although he was quiet in the final, but really good in all of the matches before that).

Arsene wants to avoid players like Chamakh, Santos, and Park. Did you read the one in the Daily Mail about how the negotiator called in to Wenger during a negotiation, and Wenger said he had changed his mind, and didn’t want the player anymore! He just had a flash of Chamakh, maybe a vision of Squillaci; and didn’t want to sign a player that he wasn’t sure was better than the ones he had.

Wenger, apparently, is fed up, to the hilt, with paying salaries for players who aren’t good enough to play, and he has gone a bit batty about the whole thing.

But if we end up getting Ozil, I’d say job well done, and the rest (Higuain, Suarez, Benzema) were lucky misses. If you’re going to make a record signing, make it someone good. Not Benzema, who might rediscover form. Take Ozil who is in brilliant, world-beating form.

Well I hope you’re right, Jeff – but I think that Anelka at 18 showed more nous in his initial appearances than Sanogo did. Yaya looked technically flawed to me – just what I’d expect from a player released by Auxerre.

It isn’t their fault, I think we all know that. But the fact is we are one injury to Giroud away from being dependant on Sanogo. And that is a joke…..and please, can we have no-one tell me that we still have Theo or Poldi. Yes, they’re technically options to play centrally but they’re shite options. There’s no point saying otherwise. In the same way Fabianski is an option in goal …
Arsene’s comments the last day or two make it clear we should all be thanking our lucky stars that we have a few injuries because no-one would be coming in if we hadn’t. Of course the players we do need – a keeper, centre-half & striker – won’t come in because we haven’t suffered injuries there. Vermaelen yes, but that was weeks ago. If he’d intended getting another centre-half he wouldn’t have waited until now. (and even then I’m assuming our defensive midfield situation has been resolved by signing on a free a player we let go – stupidly – 5 years ago who we have no idea of whether he’ll be able to produce his old form again. )
We’ll probably buy a ball-playing midfielder (Cabaye or Ozil) & winger (Di Maria) we don’t need in any way & the AKBs will tell us we were wrong all along. Look, isn’t Arsene great !
It’s so utterly depressing. What upsets me the most is that with every day he stays, the chances of Arsene leaving on a good note keeps decreasing……the greatest manager in our history is reaching a point (& it could be a matter of days away) where he will be hounded out of the club….and it will be all his own fault.

What’s the tolerance for a Bendtner return? I’m less optimistic about him than I am about Flamini. Wenger said he’s not in shape, but might stay. How much weight does he need to lose? And can he do anything about that heavy touch that saw the chance go begging against Barcelona?